


Chocolate and Smiles

by Kyuu333



Category: Gintama
Genre: M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 20:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13689567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyuu333/pseuds/Kyuu333
Summary: This year's Valentine's Day chocolate arrives faster than Gintoki can complain about it.





	Chocolate and Smiles

**Author's Note:**

> WHEEZES I made it before the day was over (for me, anyway). I thought of this fic idea just earlier today and rushed to write it before Valentine's Day was over so sorry in advance if there's mistakes or any other weirdness;;

Another Valentine’s Day, and another year of sitting around the office complaining about not getting any chocolate. At least, that was Gintoki’s plan for the approximate one hour that he was awake for before there was a ringing at their door. Shinpachi, who had been just as grumpy as his boss as he cleaned the place, perked up a little as he set his broom aside. There was a tension in the air as the two of them exchanged a brief, hopeful look—one that evidently went over Kagura’s head as she lay back against the couch and picked her nose.

“One moment!” Shinpachi called when the doorbell rang again. He disappeared into the front hall and there was the sound of the door sliding open. And right after that was a familiar loud voice.

“Heya, Shinpachi-kun!”

“Ah- Sakamoto-san?! And Mutsu-san, too! Is that-?”

Mutsu cleared her throat. “May we come in?”

“Y-yes, of course!”

“This is fer you, by the way.”

Shinpachi made a noise that was a mix of surprise and embarrassment. By the time he fumbled out a “thank you,” the two merchants had strode into the main room. Mutsu carried one of those 50 million yen bags (they were still stuck with those things, huh) that seemed to be bulging with rectangular packages. Gintoki’s raised eyebrows only went higher when Shinpachi trailed in behind them staring at the box in his hands that was neatly wrapped in fancy paper and a shiny ribbon. The boss almost tripped as he jumped to his feet.

“Whoa, whoa, what is all that?!” he blurted out.

Mutsu gave him a dry look. “What’s it look like? This year, we decided to participate and give out Valentine’s gifts to everyone.”

“That means we’ll be back fer White Day, too! Don’t ferget that, Mutsu,” Tatsuma pointed out, earning himself a glare.

“ _You_ organize that one. On your own,” his vice captain huffed as she dug into her bag and shuffled over to the couches. “Here. Ya get one, too,” she spoke to Kagura as she passed a box over. The young Yato girl gasped, her eyes lighting up as she shot to her feet and took it.

“Mucchiii!! You’re amazing!” she exclaimed with a big ol’ smile. Since Kagura was closer, Gintoki could see that the box was labeled with her name. Wow, they even put in the time to personalize each of these?

“Hey, you’re giving all these out for free?? That doesn’t seem all that cost effective for your company, y’know,” he pointed out. “And these things look expensive, too. Is there some sort of catch that we’re missing here?”

“I never said they were fer free,” Mutsu said coolly, arching a brow at him, and Gintoki rolled his eyes. He knew it. He was about to tell Kagura and Shinpachi to hand the gifts back.

“Ahahaha, nope! ‘Course they’re not,” said Tatsuma before the Yorozuya boss could open his mouth. The captain had a big grin on his face. “The cost fer each of these is: one smile!” Gintoki had to roll his eyes a second time—harder this time—as he let out a groan.

“God, why do you have to be so damn cheesy?”

Tatsuma just laughed again; Shinpachi strode up with a small frown.

“You’re serious about that, Sakamoto-san?”

“Uh-huh! Just fer today; it’s a grand sale,” the merchant exclaimed.

“In that case…” Shinpachi bowed at the two of them, and when he raised his head again, he was giving a warm smile. “Thank you very much again!”

“Ahaha! That’s the ticket, Shinpachi-kun!”

“Well if that’s how it is, don’t scare us like that, sheesh. Think about how us poor people feel every once in a while,” Gintoki huffed. He looked to Mutsu expectantly. “So? Gimme my chocolate already.” The vice captain looked like she was ready to pulverize his face by throwing a box at it with her super Yato strength. But before she reached into her bag, a box landed lightly on top of Gintoki’s desk.

“This one’s fer Kintoki!” said Tatsuma cheerily, and the Yorozuya boss blinked at him before looking down at the wrapped chocolate. Yeah, that’s what it said, “To Kintoki”—

“It’s _Gin_ , you asshole,” Gintoki snapped. But he faltered for just a second, catching sight of a quick movement as Tatsuma tucked his hand into his pocket. Was that…a bandage? But before he could ask about it, the captain gave another loud laugh.

“Well! My work here’s done. I’m gonna go see if Oryou-chan has a chocolate fer me,” he said excitedly, already heading back toward the entrance. “See ya all around!”

“Weren’t ya supposed to hand these out with me?” Mutsu snapped.

“Ahaha! I was stickin’ with ya as moral support, but obviously ya don’t need it. I’ll see ya back at the Kairinmaru tonight, bye!”

“Hey!!” But her captain was already gone, and she sighed loudly as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “That goddamn idiot…” Gintoki was already tearing his box apart. It made him cringe a little to ruin the nice wrapping—it really looked expensive—but his lust for chocolate triumphed over everything. Though once it was open, revealing the heart-shaped chocolate within, the first thing he did was click his tongue.

“It’s _written_ wrong, too,” he grumbled, running an annoyed hand through his hair as he glared at the message in icing—”To Kintoki with love”. He was about to ask Mutsu why she let that dumbass deface this nice expensive chocolate when he paused again, giving it another good look. This heart was…kinda lumpy, wasn’t it? It definitely seemed homemade. By a complete amateur.

“Apparently _everyone_ gets cold feet durin’ this holiday,” Mutsu sighed, making Gintoki’s head snap up.

“What-?”

“Mmm, this ‘s so good,” Kagura exclaimed with a mouthful of chocolate, interrupting his question. The already melting heart in her hands looked—well, probably used to look—a lot less misshapen than Gintoki’s.

“Really? Glad to hear that,” Mutsu hummed. “I thought so, too.”

Shinpachi had sat down across from his coworker and just finished unwrapping his as well. His _definitely_ looked better than Gintoki’s, but there were still clear signs of imperfection. “I thought you bought all of these,” he said thoughtfully, furrowing his brow, “but this looks…did you actually _make_ these, Mutsu-san?”

“Yeah, ya got me,” the vice captain said, looking away. Even someone like her looked a bit embarrassed to admit it. “Ya weren’t supposed to open it that fast but…it was cheaper than buyin’ it already made, and we had all these to give out. So I teamed up with Granny to make ‘em—a lot of our Kaientai did, actually. We all made a few to gift to whomever we wanted. Some of these’re made by crewmates who were too shy to hand ‘em out in person, so I volunteered to do it.” She frowned at the bag at her side. “It’s gonna be a long day.

“And our captain’s no help at all, either. He tried makin’ a batch and ended up spillin’ it on the floor. Then he burned his hand tryin’ to fix it and ended up havin’ to sit out fer the rest of the day. The only one he managed to make was that one.” She nodded at the lumpy chocolate sitting on Gintoki’s desk and gave an annoyed huff. “And now he’s bolted on me. I swear, he’s dead the next time I see him.”

Usually, Gintoki would reply with a snarky comment about how dysfunctional that damn company would be if Mutsu wasn’t there to run it in place of her captain. But this time, none of that came as he stared down at the gift sitting in front of him. He…really didn’t know what to say. Though as he spaced out, another box slid into view. He blinked up at Mutsu, who’d made her way over to stand across the desk.

“ _This_ one’s from _me_. As a strictly platonic gift, so don’t get any funny ideas. Though I can’t say the same fer that one.” She muttered that last part as she turned away, pulling her large hat back over her head. “Anyway, I’m off now. Later.”

“Take care, Mutsu-san!” Shinpachi called after her. He gave Gintoki a bright smile after the front door closed again. “Gin-san, isn’t this nice? We actually got some early this year! That’s— _aagh!!_ Kagura-chan, what’re you doing?!” He looked on in dismay as Kagura had apparently finished her own chocolate and was now munching on Shinpachi’s that she’d snatched from the table. “Give that back!”

“But I’m hungry!”

“Chocolate doesn’t fill you up at all!!”

“But it is so good! And anyway, didn’t you say you care more about the love and not the chocolate? This is fine.”

“No it’s not! You don’t get to declare that on your own!”

“Fine, then I will just have half.”

_“Nooo!!”_

As his kids wrestled for the remains of Shinpachi’s chocolate, Gintoki just sat back down in his chair, still eyeing the gifts on his desk. On top of how lumpy Tatsuma’s chocolate was, the icing was a bit of a mess, too. It looked like he wrote it himself, even with that burned hand. He’d probably never made chocolate in his life before this if he’d messed up as badly as Mutsu described. And yet he did it anyway…exhaling through his nose, Gintoki put the cover back on the box.

“What an idiot,” he breathed.

 

They ended up getting a few more Valentine’s chocolates throughout the day. Well, there was Otae’s dark matter that she called chocolate, along with whatever the hell that mess Sarutobi left on the table was. Otsuu left them all little goodie bags and Shinpachi almost fainted. There was even a box of assorted chocolates from the Shinsengumi with a simple note saying, “We had extra. Enjoy.” (Which annoyed the hell out of Gintoki. They had _“extra”??_ Did they have to rub it in like that?! Those shitty tax robbers!) A few other unlabeled chocolates mysteriously appeared on their porch as well. From secret admirers? Or people who were just too shy to write their names? Whatever, chocolate was chocolate. It was a pretty impressive haul this year, actually—hardly one to complain about.

Once they were free from their jobs and the last of the sun dipped behind the horizon, Gintoki wandered around Kabukicho on his own. Young lovebirds were everywhere, holding boxes of chocolate, flowers, and the like. Like every year, it was damn annoying to see, and Gintoki felt like a grumpy old man among them all. But then he reached to his sleeve, feeling for the box inside, and felt a bit more at ease.

Tatsuma was easy to spot in the crowd, as always, the brown perm sticking out above the crowd like a sore thumb. Walking up from behind, Gintoki wordlessly hooked him by the arm and felt him start in surprise.

“K-Kintoki?!”

There was a light bruise on his face—from Oryou earlier that day, probably. It almost distracted Gintoki enough to let out an amused snort, but he resisted. Glowering at Tatsuma, he pulled the crudely re-wrapped box from his sleeve. His first chocolate of the day.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he questioned, waving it in the merchant’s face. Tatsuma blinked several times behind his sunglasses before cracking a smile.

“I panicked,” he answered a bit too cheerily. Gintoki scoffed.

“The hell’d you panic about? We’ve known each other for _how_ long? And here you are, acting like some lovestruck teenager.” Tatsuma hesitated.

“I wanted- I thought I’d try to make ya somethin’ special! Somethin’ homemade. I’ve never really done that before and- well, that’s why it ain’t that great, ahaha! But I know ya have that crazy love of sweets, so I just…” he trailed off, seemingly at a loss of words as he gestured helplessly. The painful seconds of floundering ended with a sheepish giggle, and he scratched the back of his head with his free hand—Gintoki spotted the bandage again and his scowl softened. With a sigh, he tucked the box safely back into his kimono. He abruptly stopped walking and tugged at Tatsuma to do the same.

“I still haven’t paid you for this.”

“Hm?”

Gintoki grabbed hold of his scarf, quickly leaning in as he shut his eyes and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. Their lips met, gently brushing—a quaint, soft kiss that made all the merchant’s restless energy melt away. Tatsuma relaxed against him with a low murmur, his warm breath pleasant on Gintoki’s cooled skin. The soothing heat warmed him right to his fingertips that slackened and slipped away.

The fond smile formed naturally on Gintoki’s lips as he pulled back, eyelids fluttering open to the satisfying sight of Tatsuma’s flushed face. It almost seemed like there were actual hearts in those dazed, widened eyes. With a soft snort, Gintoki reached for Tatsuma’s good hand, entwining their fingers together.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, you sappy bastard.”

Tatsuma blinked once at that, and then a huge, radiant grin broke upon his face. He let out a bright, delighted laugh. Before Gintoki knew it, he was pulled into a tight hug. Everything about Tatsuma was so warm; so loving. Gintoki could only wish to match him, gently wrapping his arms around the merchant with a comfortable hum. The noise of the crowd around them melted away as he smiled up at the orange sky.


End file.
